Brisingr Part Thirty Five
Fire in the Sky pt.3 Okay, the next chunk here is of Murtagh and Eragon fighting. It's not exceptionally exciting though Paolini has his odd habit of describing the wrong things in the weirdest of ways. Saphira did not wait for him. She tipped forward, rotating her wings in their shoulder sockets, so that, for the span of a heartbeat, she pointed straight down, her wings still parallel with the dust smeared ground, supporting her entire unstable weight. Then she pulled in her right wing and swung her head to the left and her tail to the right, spinning in a clockwise direction. Or, Saphira spun around to put herself in a better position to attack Thorn. Do we really need to know that the wings are rotating in their shoulder sockets? It's a bit odd. Like if I were to say that my fingers lifted at the knuckles as I typed on the keyboard rubbing against the cartilage. While that is descriptive, it's not the right sort of description. We don't care about wings rotating in shoulder sockets, we care about what Saphira is going to do to Thorn (the poor baby). Murtagh shows foresight and an intelligent use of magic by having imbued a stone with a healing spell. That way he doesn't have to waste his energy to heal Thorn after Saphira's attack. I wonder if Eragon is going to pick up that trick. I hope he does, that would show that he's learning from experience which indicates character growth. Then there's another odd bit in regards to Paolini's rules of mage fighting. Eragon felt through Saphira the throbbing of her wound. He stared at the bloody gash, thoughts racing. If they had been fighting any magician besides Murtagh, he would not dare to cast a spell while engaged in hostilities, for the magician would most likely believe he or she was about to die and would counter with a desperate, all-out magical attack. The thing is if you're engaged in hostilities you're generally trying to kill the other person, so of course the person is likely going to think they're going to die and try to defend themselves. However if they're smart enough they'll know not to do an all out attack unless they were utterly desperate. One would imagine that if Eragon was fighting a mage the mage would be using magic. Oh, wait. Never mind. I forgot this is logic. In Paolini land dragons don't fly into battle but instead run on the ground. Fishermen have access to high up commander types to tell them about dragons diving into lakes. There's the state of the art internet system that allows even tiny villages to get accurate drawings of evil people that the Empire wants. Taxes make someone evil despite ruling a land in relative peace for over a hundred years. Andmages have to know exactly what spell the other is going to use to counter it so they try to get into the other's mind. So now we also learn that attacking a mage with anything but magic means that their life is not in danger. Rocks fall. Everyone dies. ... what? I can't have wishful thinking? Oh, wait, Eragon continues to be dumb to provide exposition to the readers in the instance that they couldn't figure it out. He wonders why Murtagh used the stone to heal Thorn instead of using his own power. Saphira says so that he could save his strength. Or because: Saphira said,Perhaps he wants to preserve his strength. Or perhaps he wanted to avoid frightening you. It would not please Galbatorix if, by using magic, Murtagh caused you to panic and you killed yourself or Thorn or Murtagh as a result. Remember, the king’s great ambition is to have all four of us under his command, not dead, where we are beyond his reach. Duh? Though I'm not sure about the whole panic thing. Of course then again, magic users here never actually seem to use their magic. Finally, how do we know that there isn't a kill spell in the stone? This sort of thinking will lead to things like: OHMIGAWD HE'S MOVING HE MUST BE ATTACKING ME!!! KILLKILLKILL!!! ... oh wait, he was only picking his nose. Oops. Too bad about that. Anyway, Saphria gets injured on the wing and Arya tells Eragon to let them heal the wound and have him preserve his own energy. Then she says that it wasn't easy and sounds exhausted. But curing cancer is easy. Thirteen elves get exhausted healing a wing wound, but Eragon doesn't healing cancer. I bet Paolini didn't expect me to remember that. The thing is that getting exhausted doing magic in the middle of a battle is more "thrilling" and danger inciting. Will they have enough energy to sustain Eragon through the battle? More fighting. Blah, blah blah. Saphira flips over to expose her belly as Thorn attacks. Eragon and Murtagh are somehow able to reach each other and attack with swords. Eragon gets hurt and Arya and the elves heal him, but not after Eragon lets them in. He put up wards to protect himself and that included not letting anyone in to heal him. At least Arya calls him on this stupidity. More fighting. Eragon tries to get into Murtagh's mind as Murtagh tries to get into his. Pushing back and forth, in and out, neither getting the best of the other, both of them getting sweaty and tired and then Eragon gets into bondage casts a spell that makes it so Murtagh can't move his arms or torso. There is more struggling as they try to get into each other's minds. Eragon also notes that there appears to be a lot of voices in Murtagh's head. As on the Burning Plains, Eragon noticed that Murtagh’s mind felt as if it contained multitudes, as if a confused chorus of voices was murmuring beneath the turmoil of Murtagh’s own thoughts. Eragon wondered if Murtagh had a group of magicians assisting him, even as the elves were him. I certainly don't remember such a thing. But what is continuity? A pair of the so called fantastically powerful with us backing you up no force can stop us elves faint. OH NOES WILL ERAGON HAVE ENOUGH ELF HAREM LEFT TO SUSTAIN HIM!!!?? Just as it seems like he's going to lose, Murtagh loses and breaks contact. But before they can do anything about it, Eragon passes out. Whoot. Chapter? Still not done. Category:Brisingr Category:Inheritance Cycle